Updates with prices, analyst comment before the opening bell

By Pranav Kashyap and Nikhil Sharma

July 7 (Reuters) - Wall Street braced for a lower open on Monday as tariff tensions kept investors uneasy, while Tesla shares slid after CEO Elon Musk announced his plans to launch a political party.

The White House is close to finalizing several trade pacts in coming days and will notify other countries of higher tariff rates by July 9, President Donald Trump said on Sunday, with the higher rates set to take effect on August 1.

Trump also threatened an extra 10% tariff on countries aligning themselves with the "Anti-American policies" of the BRICS group of Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.

In April, Trump unveiled a base tariff rate of 10% on most countries and additional duties ranging up to 50%, subsequently pushing the Nasdaq .IXIC into a bear market.

Although he later delayed the effective date for all but 10% until July 9. The new date offers countries a three-week reprieve.

"There are increasing suggestions that August 1 might be the new July 9," Deutsche Bank analysts said.

The market's reaction was cautious, as investors weighed the lack of fresh details and braced for light summer trading in a week light on economic data — except for Thursday's initial jobless claims.

At 8:34 a.m. ET, Dow E-minis YMcv1 were mostly unchanged, U.S. S&P 500 E-minis EScv1 were down 13.5 points, or 0.21%, and Nasdaq 100 E-minis NQcv1 were down 80.75 points, or 0.35%.

Monday's pullback also comes after the S&P 500 .SPX and the Nasdaq .IXIC closed at record highs on Thursday following a surprisingly strong jobs report that pointed to resilience in the labor market.

"The market right now is in a bit of a risk off environment .. you can certainly blame the tariff uncertainty for it," said Elias Haddad, senior markets strategist at Brown Brothers Harriman.

"However, data hasn't been terrible in the U.S. .. and that's probably a big supporting factor for stocks."

The Dow .DJI closed the holiday-shortened week about 0.5% away from its record high.

Among megacap stocks, Tesla TSLA.O dropped 6% in premarket trading after Musk announced the formation of a U.S. political party, marking a new escalation in his feud with Trump.

Nvidia NVDA.O was on track to become the world's most valuable company in history, with the chipmaker's market capitalization nearing $4 trillion. Its shares were down 1% on the day.

Shares of WNS WNS.N jumped 14.3% after the French IT services firm Capgemini CAPP.PA agreed to buy the outsourcing firm for $3.3 billion in cash.

Meanwhile, Trump's chaotic tariff policies and what that might do to economic growth and inflation have kept the Federal Reserve from cutting interest rates, and minutes of its June meeting, scheduled for release on Wednesday should offer more clues on the interest rate outlook.

Traders have now priced out a July rate cut, with September odds at 66%, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.

Attention is also on a sweeping tax-cut and spending bill, passed by House Republicans after markets closed on Thursday, that is set to swell the national deficit by over $3 trillion in the next decade.

While the stimulus could juice economic growth, it also risks fueling inflation, making the Fed's next move harder to predict.

(Reporting by Pranav Kashyap and Nikhil Sharma in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel)

((pranav.kashyap@tr.com; +919886482111;))